The Star-Ledger, the Times of Trenton, the South Jersey Times, the Easton Express-Times and the Hunterdon County Democrat will all stop their print publications in February as part of a broader shift by their parent company toward a digital-only approach.
According to The Philadelphia Business Journal, the newspapers will continue to provide digital content to subscribers and maintain the NJ.com and LehighValleyLive.com websites, the publications said Wednesday. The decision was attributed to rising production and distribution costs, decreasing circulation and the reader shift from print to digital.
The Star-Ledger, based in Newark, is owned by the Newark Morning Ledger Co. and affiliated with Advance Local, which owns NJ.com and the other affected newspapers through NJ Advance Media.
In a statement posted on each publication’s website, NJ Advance Media President Steve Alessi said the decision “represents the next step into the digital future of journalism in New Jersey. It’s important to emphasize that this is a forward-looking decision that allows us to invest more deeply than ever in our journalism and in serving our communities.”
Alessi said the statewide news organization now has more reporters than it did last year and plans to expand further in 2025.
📰The Star-Ledger, New Jersey’s largest newspaper, reportedly saw daily print circulation drop 15% in 2023 to 34,400, a massive decline from just eight years ago when it sold 110,000 newspapers daily. The Star-Ledger, founded in 1832, stopped printing Saturday newspapers at the end of last year. The company said its print circulation has declined another 21% so far this year.
📰The Times of Trenton, printing since 1882, also canceled its Saturday print edition last year. The Mullica Hill-based South Jersey Times, founded in 2012, also made a similar decision. The South Jersey Times covers Camden, Salem, Cumberland, and Gloucester counties.
📰The Easton Express-Times, founded in 1855 and the longest continuously published newspaper in the Lehigh Valley, is a daily newspaper covering Lehigh and Northampton counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey. The Hunterdon County Democrat, based in Flemington and in print since 1838, is a weekly publication.
📰As part of the changes, NJ Advance Media said it would be closing its Montville, New Jersey, production facility in February. That will cause Jersey City-based The Jersey Journal to cease publication altogether at the same time. The 157-year-old publication said it can't remain in business following the production facility’s closure, citing increased costs with a new printer and its small circulation being dependent on newsstand sales.
The final print editions of the Star-Ledger, Times of Trenton, South Jersey Times and Express-Times will be published on Feb. 2. The final weekly print edition of the Hunterdon County Democrat will be published on Jan. 30.
The company did not disclose how many jobs will be eliminated because of the end of print publication and closure of the production facility. An executive who works with the Star-Ledger said impacted employees will be provided with severance and transition assistance packages.
New York-based Advance Publications, which owns Advance Local, is one of the largest privately held companies in the U.S. In addition to the New Jersey media group, it owns PA Media Group and The Patriot-News in Harrisburg and newspapers in Alabama, New York, Ohio, Massachusetts, Michigan and Oregon.
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